A. This is the
apartment of Christine Hill, an investigative reporter who gets into an
affair with Quinn, and who turns out to be the daughter of Arthur Mitchell,
the "Trinity Killer".

Christine is
desperate to win the love of her cold, distant father, and has been keeping
track of his crimes and covering his tracks, when she thought necessary.
She went so far as to shoot and kill FBI agent Lundy (and wound Debra)
at a hotel.

We see the interior
of the apartment fairly often (since she's Quinn's girlfriend), but we
first see the exterior of the apartment house in Episode 11
of Season 4 ("Hello, Dexter Morgan").

This first time,
after the glimpse of the outside, we then we see Debra & Angel inside
Christine's apartment, searching it for evidence about the Trinity Killer.
They find a number of postcards Christine has sent her father, and
the addresses
match those of the Trinity murder scenes.

When they see
that the cards are signed, "Love, Daddy", they realize that
she is Trinity's daughter, and that she has been in contact with him all
this time.

In the next
scene, we see the exterior at night, when Arthur Mitchell visits the apartment
building. He sees that the door to her apartment is sealed with yellow
police tape, and just keeps walking.

Later, we get
a brief glimpse of the interior, when Christine phones her father, seeking
help, but is cruelly rejected by him.

In the final
scene, we see the exterior once again, as Quinn waits outside, while Debra
knocks on Christine's door. Christine lets her in, then confesses that
she shot Debra and killed Lundy.

She asks Debra
for forgiveness, but Debra refuses. Christine then produces a gun and kills
herself.

Q.
What is it actually in real life?

A. An apartment
house. But nowhere near Miami.

Q.
Where can I find it in real life?

A. The apartment
house is at 1527 Gordon Street, in
Hollywood.

That's on the
west side of the street, just north of Sunset Blvd - near the Sunset-Gower
studios where Dexter is filmed.

A. Given
the wave-like front of this apartment house, my hunch was that it was probably
located nearby the shore, perhaps in Santa Monica, Long Beach or Redondo.
My hunch was also dead wrong, and I spent a long time proving that...

Finally, in
mid 2010, Geoff emailed me with the
location of the apartment house, and I must admit I was surprised to find
it was on Gordon Street. I significantly underestimated how often the producers
chose to film on that street right next to the studio. (Thanks,
Geoff!)